rakemag Next month the Guthrie will grab all the attention when it re-opens, but right now you need to train your sights on Northeast Minneapolis, where the long-shuttered 1920s-era Ritz Theater will once again open its doors. In its heyday the Ritz was the lynchpin of a friendly neighborhood entertainment district–back before people drove to the … Read more
John Guare’s script could rightly be called the star of this classic Jungle Theater production, but the cast includes a surefire lineup of local stage wonders: Jungle artistic director Bain Boehlke, the indefatigable and inimitable comic actress Wendy Lehr, and the ex-Twin Citizen Rosalie Tenseth, who’s returned from New York to reprise, for a third … Read more
A woman finds herself torn between two loves, one with a beautiful body and one with a beautiful mind. Of course, the triangulated longing Thomas Mann wrote about in his 1941 novella The Transposed Heads, which was based on an Indian folk story, is a theme that keeps cropping up again and again. Ragamala Music … Read more
The buttery-yellow walls with navy-blue accents may make you think you’ve wandered into a Scandinavian wine bar. But the menu at Willie’s, which comforts downtowners in fitting style from sunrise to nightfall, has just a few Nordic touches. Daytime visitors enjoy choice selections like tangy kielbasa salad–plump grilled sausages atop tart, lemony frisee or tatsoi … Read more
That old Thomas Edison saw about inspiration and perspiration? It came to mind when we received Alison McGhee’s response to our question about which five things she’d take with her to a deserted island. McGhee, a Minneapolis-based writer who has won two Minnesota Book Awards, didn’t just answer the question–first she wrote an entire essay … Read more
In 1949, Jerome Liebling left the established New York art scene for the academe, taking up an influential post as professor of film and photography in the University of Minnesota’s fledgling fine arts program. As he set down roots here, his outsider’s perspective drew him toward people and places–scenes from St. Paul’s slaughterhouses, work-worn faces … Read more
The Calhoun Beach Club’s on-site restaurant wins Facelift of the Year. The rejuvenated space (pictured here), once home to Dixie’s, is now a restaurant worthy of the club’s luxe membership. The warm, orangey colors; clean, modern lines; and cushy pod furniture are invitingly swank, but this place isn’t all about show. View’s sesame-encrusted salmon with … Read more
I crave depth. Sometimes I read the McNews but always thirst for more. Your magazine is a deep drink of cool water in an ADD-media world. I can hardly wait for each issue to come out, and I devour every article (and yes, even the advertisements). Kudos especially for “The Long Walk” [April]. When I … Read more
What a lovely article Jennifer Vogel wrote about walking in dear old Minneapolis. I’m a complete walking geek myself–walking to work and many other places because I choose to. It grows from a love of the city (whatever that city may be–Seattle now, or Shanghai, Hanoi, and or wherever I’ve lived) and what I can … Read more
I’m sure Santino Fontana will be great as Hamlet. But you’re wrong to suggest that casting him is somehow authentic, rescuing the part from inappropriately “fat, bearded, balding guys.” “The Prince of Denmark is twenty or so years old” says Straight Talk [March]. No, Hamlet is thirty. The gravedigger in Act Five, when asked how … Read more